The Events Committee serves the Chamber by creating additonal revenue, creating networking opportunities for our members, and bringing local businesses together. We are always open to ideas and suggestions on improving existing events, creating new events, or parterning with others to bring more to our Chamber.

The following is a list of upcoming events. Our next focus is the Directory Distribution and providing a prominient showing of the Chambers numbers as we deliver the new directory to our members. We will be asking Board members for participation in this event so please plan to participate.

February – Directory Distribution and Fiesta Meet and Greet

August – Taking Care of Business Bowling Event

September – Golf Tournament

Welcome Chamber Members

The Cities most recent Transportation System Plans were developed in 2004. Five years remain of the current TSP’s 2023 planning horizon but recent developments and plans necessitate an update. The Cities must update their TSP to maintain a 20-year planning horizon and comply with the Transportation Planning Rule (TPR).

Study Area

The Project includes two distinct areas, the City of North Bend and the City of Coos Bay. The cities are located in Coos County, Oregon on the Pacific Ocean. The City of North Bend is surrounded on three sides by Coos Bay, sharing its southern border with the City of Coos Bay, which is near where the Coos River enters Coos Bay. Together, they are referred to as one entity called either Coos Bay/North Bend, or the Bay Area. The study area is the boundary for the Project, which includes, at a minimum, City Limits, Urban Growth Boundary (“UGB”) and urban reserves.

A TSP examines the City’s multimodal transportation system as a whole, considers planning for street maintenance, connectivity, access, safety and the impact of future growth throughout the network. In order to review the system that is most likely to affect an average Bay Area citizen or visitor, and to efficiently use time and resources for analysis, TSPs generally focus on the higher-order, arterial and collector street system. Arterials and collectors, by definition, provide connections across a city and between neighborhoods and activity centers. As such, the arterial and collector street intersections and corridors are the focus of the TSP Update.

There has been progress made on the Transportation System Plan update and are ready for a PAC meeting and a public open house to discuss. We are looking to share the current information at an open house on December 12th, at the North Bend Library from 5 – 7 p.m.

SWACT Members

Did you know that most participating members of the Chamber Transportation Committee are also SWACT Members, either currently or formerly (Southwest Area Commission on Transportation)? They include; Rick Skinner (Vice Chair), Ron Kutch, Art Poole, Martin Callery (now a member of the OTC, appointed by the Governor), Jim Hossley, Randy Dixon, John Sweet, John Rowe, Jennifer Groth, Mark Usselman.

The membership is currently working on how to become more assertive with ODOT, as a it has to do with its area management and infrastructure needs with HB 2017 spending.

If you would like to join us, you can contact the Chamber office or just join us; we meet the second Tuesday of each month, at the Coos Bay Visitor Information Center, conference room, from noon – 1 p.m.

Chamber Tourism Committee Quarterly Report

Member of the Chamber’s Tourism Committee met on September 27, 2018 to discuss the future of the committee and its goals for 2019. During the course of the meeting it was determined that the group would meet quarterly, except during the months immediately preceding our largest event of the year, Travel & Tourism Week events, including the Bay Area Brigade.

Location and time of the meeting will change in 2019. The meeting will remain the third Thursday of the months in which we hold meetings but will now be held in the Conference Room of the Coos Bay Visitor Information Center at 8:00am. The next meeting of the Chamber Tourism Committee will be Thursday, January 17th.

One of our primary goals for 2019 is increasing communication within the community about the importance of tourism to the Bay Area. As this goal dovetails with a goal of the Coos Bay-North Bend Visitor & Convention Bureau, a joint monthly newsletter began going out to Chamber members and others in the community focusing on important news and activities happening in tourism in the area. The plan is to send this newsletter via email the first week of each month. If you are not currently receiving this newsletter, you can sign up at https://oregonsadventurecoast.com/industry-news/.

Other Tourism Committee Goals include:

Fully Plan and Promote Travel & Tourism Week, May 5-11, 2019

Make a Bigger Splash, with more events including the Bay Area Brigade.

Suggestions included a Street Party with the BBQ post Brigade being open to those who participate and those who do not; invite local attractions/organizations to have tables/booths at street party; invite the Surfrider Foundation to do demonstrations or activities on the Boardwalk; appreciation lunches for Fire and Police in both cities.

Widespread media coverage/promotion

Regional Tourism

Work closely with the Regional tourism groups that have been forming – Travel Southern Oregon Coast, the Oregon South Coast Regional Tourism Network, and the Oregon Coast Visitors Association – to help promote the area to keep visitors here longer.

Communications

(As noted above) Along with the VCB, create an Industry Newsletter to send updated information, news and other data to industry professionals and interested citizens in the area. This newsletter would allow the committee to promote such activities as the Ambassador program and the activities for Travel & Tourism Week.

Increase community communications with Monthly Articles in The World from a variety of committee/Chamber members – on topics that highlight the importance of tourism to our economy.

Ensure front line staff at local businesses can answers the question “What is there to do here?”

Host FAM tours for local frontline workers – 1/2 day mini-tours of our attractions to help our frontline staff help our visitors find great things to see & do, for a minimal fee.

Renewed push for the Community Ambassador Program – as a committee, encourage businesses to have their staff go through the online program. It is easier to access now.

Help distribute new collateral from the VCB to local businesses.

The last few month have been a mixture of County government, Candidate forums, the Oregon business plan, SBDC and an update on the Jordan Cove Energy Project, which was attended by almost 80 folks.

There will be two WBC programs in December, leading into our Christmas and New Year’s hiatus. The first WBC program of the new year, will be on January 9th with Carmen and Annie, of 7 Devils Brewery, chatting about their Drinking Civilly program and more.

Currently we are scheduling the 2019 portion of our season, from January through May. If you have a topic, issue or business you would like to hear more about, please give me a call or note.